Many precious metals (such as gold, silver, copper, and platinum) occur naturally in the environment. In many cases, such precious metals are found in a granular mixture (and/or in ore, circuit boards, and/or other forms that may then be ground down to a granular mixture) with various nonprecious materials such as sand, dirt, and so on. In order to utilize the precious metals found in such a granular mixture, such precious metals may have to be separated from the nonprecious materials in the granular mixture.
Various separator devices exist for separating precious metals from such a granular mixture. Examples of such separator devices include shaker tables, blue bowls, sluice boxes, gold pans, and so on.